Why people walk across America

This August 2013 photo provided by Benjamin Lee shows him, left, and Joe Bell on the side of the road in Colorado. "Hurry up, old man," Lee would tease Joe, though, in these high elevations, he was happy for an excuse to slacken the pace a bit. "I really admire this young man," Bell wrote of Lee on his blog. (AP Photo/Benjamin Lee)

In this Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013 photo, Steven Wescott walks with his goat LeeRoy Brown along a street in Lenexa, Kan. Wescott was a year and a half into a 3,100 mile journey walking from Seattle, Wash. to New York City to raise money to build an orphanage in Kenya. He knows there are easier ways to raise money. But this way, he gets "to see the kindness of America." (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

This 2012 photo provided by the family shows Jadin Bell, left, and his father, Joe. For a week following Jadin's death, Joe lay in bed, beating himself up, wondering what he could _ should _ have done differently to help his son. In the face of relentless bullying at high school, the openly gay 15-year-old had confessed to his parents six months earlier that he'd been having suicidal thoughts. Bell and his wife got their son into counseling, and Jadin appeared to be doing well. Then he hanged himself. Racked with guilt, Bell chided himself over scolding Jadin for smoking a few days before the hanging. Joe worried that he couldn't survive this grief. (AP Photo)

This August 2013 photo provided by Benjamin Lee shows him, left, and Joe Bell in Colorado. The fellow cross-country walkers met in Steamboat Springs on July 31. Despite the age difference, they hit it off immediately and agreed to travel together as far as Boulder. (AP Photo/Benjamin Lee)

In this Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013 photo, Steven Wescott motions to a motorist as he walks with his goat LeeRoy Brown along a street in Lenexa, Kan. The two have been walking since May 2, 2012 from Seattle, Wash. to New York City to raise money to build an orphanage in Kenya. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

In this Nov. 27, 2013 picture, a tree towers over Benjamin Lee as he walks through Queen Anne's County, Md., as part of his walk across America. After graduating from college in Australia in 2012, he wanted one more grand adventure before pursuing a career: a walk across America. Covering 3,432 miles through 14 states, he raised funds for Oxfam America along the way. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this Nov. 27, 2013 picture, Benjamin Lee uses his cell phone to navigate in Caroline County, Md. For as long as he can remember, Lee has dreamed of visiting every country on the planet. After graduating from college in Australia in 2012, he wanted one more grand adventure before pursuing a career: a walk across America. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this Nov. 27, 2013 picture, Benjamin Lee, front, walks along a highway shoulder in front of his brother, Jonathan, in Queen Anne's County, Md., as part of his walk across America. For as long as he can remember, Lee has dreamed of visiting every country on the planet. With nearly 40 stamps in his passport by age 24, he was well on his way. After graduating from college in Australia in 2012, he wanted one more grand adventure before pursuing a career: a walk across America. Covering 3,432 miles through 14 states, he raised funds for Oxfam America along the way. His brother surprised him by flying from Australia to join him for the last 100 miles of the walk. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

This Aug. 18, 2013 photo provided by Lacey Champion shows, standing from left, Benjamin Lee, Jonathon Stalls, Lacey Champion, Joe Bell, Nate Damm, and kneeling, Joseph Bell, in Boulder, Colo. during a dinner for transcontinental walkers. At any given time, as many as 20 people are attempting to cross the United States on foot, Damm estimates. The website he started following his own trek has become a must-read for walkers, full of advice, tracking information and a running debate on the "why" of such journeys. (AP Photo/Lacey Champion)

In this Sept. 23, 2013 photo, Malene Comes walks down a road in Victorville, Calif. en route to to Kingman Ariz. as a part of her walk to the east coast and back. She began her journey in Santa Monica. Her "Conversation with America" walk across the U.S. is about raising awareness of obesity - a condition with which she's struggled her entire adult life. But it's much more than that. Unemployed and awaiting the formal dissolution of her 13-year marriage, Comes had "lost every sense of myself and the world I was in as anything other than a hostile place and a scary place." (AP Photo/The Victor Valley Daily Press, James Quigg)

In this 2013 photo provided by Joe's Walk For Change, Joe Bell pushes his cart as he leaves a gas station in Salt Lake City, en route to Denver. He took a leave from his job of 17 years at a Boise Cascade plywood mill and began mapping out his route to New York City _ a place his son, Jadin, had visited on an eighth-grade field trip, and where he had dreamed of someday living. His plan was to walk across the country, sharing Jadin's story. (AP Photo/Joe's Walk For Change, Ann Clark)

In this Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013 photo, Steven Wescott walks with his goat, LeeRoy Brown, along a street in Lenexa, Kan. Wescott was a year and a half into a 3,100 mile journey walking from Seattle, Wash. to New York City to raise money to build an orphanage in Kenya. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

In this Sept. 23, 2013 photo, Malene Comes walks down a road in Victorville, Calif. en route to to Kingman Ariz. as a part of her walk to the east coast and back. Comes, who had attempted suicide twice in three months before she started her trek, has shed more than 20 of the 289 pounds she was carrying on her 5-foot-2 frame when she left a Santa Monica beach on Aug. 29. In some ways, though, she already feels so much lighter. "Yeah, this is scary, but maybe less scary than killing myself." (AP Photo/The Victor Valley Daily Press, James Quigg)

This December 2013 photo provided by Michael Ross shows him standing on a ledge at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. When Ross told his grandmother that he and high school buddy George Crawford were hiking across the country from Connecticut to California, she had just one question: What cause are you walking for? Truth is, the 19-year-olds were just out for one last big adventure before heading to Marine boot camp. But over time, Ross and Crawford decided their trek did need some higher purpose. Both men's families had been touched by cancer. They decided to walk for the Livestrong Foundation, with a goal of raising $20,000 toward finding a cure. (AP Photo/George Crawford)

This November 2013 photo provided by Mike Ross shows his cross-country walking partners, Drew Babcock, left, and George Crawford traveling through Wolf Creek Pass towards Pagosa Springs, Colo. When Ross told his grandmother that he and high school buddy Crawford were hiking across the country from Connecticut to California, she had just one question: What cause are you walking for? Truth is, the 19-year-olds were just out for one last big adventure before heading to Marine boot camp. But over time, Ross and Crawford decided their trek did need some higher purpose. Both men's families had been touched by cancer. They decided to walk for the Livestrong Foundation, with a goal of raising $20,000 toward finding a cure. (AP Photo/Michael Ross)